Re:Uber Cedes Russia to Yandex with $3.7B Merger Agreement
by thriftwy on Thursday July 13, 2017 @10:03AM
(#14761289)
I think you're oversimplifying Russian Taxi market a great deal.
First of all, you're saying that mobile-first services were launched because cabs were crap. The market was good because the market was bad?
Medium-size cities had very cheap fixed-rate taxi-by-telephone services. Like, whole city flat rate for $3 in driver's own old beater.
Meanwhile Moscow had awful taxi services (very unreliable and expensive) and you had better luck just lifting your hand when near the road (yes, that's how it actually worked).
Then Yandex launched their Taxi and reliability of service rose very fast while prices fell. Then, GetTaxi and Uber also entered market, as well as some smaller players like Maxim and Saturn. Yandex is still heavily focused on Moscow with unreliable coverage everywhere.
First of all, you're saying that mobile-first services were launched because cabs were crap. The market was good because the market was bad?
Medium-size cities had very cheap fixed-rate taxi-by-telephone services. Like, whole city flat rate for $3 in driver's own old beater.
Meanwhile Moscow had awful taxi services (very unreliable and expensive) and you had better luck just lifting your hand when near the road (yes, that's how it actually worked).
Then Yandex launched their Taxi and reliability of service rose very fast while prices fell. Then, GetTaxi and Uber also entered market, as well as some smaller players like Maxim and Saturn. Yandex is still heavily focused on Moscow with unreliable coverage everywhere.